WORKING AND WINNING – Doncaster Bowling Club
……that the team in which he was the lead in the ‘Sunny West Bowling Carnival’ had just become runners up to the Fiji Commonwealth Games team. They had won seven games in a row and then lost the final.
Here is some information on the Sunny West Bowling Carnival held at the Nadi Sports and Social Club.
It is a weeklong carnival: the fours goes for three days, a one day break (people go on an island cruise) and then the pairs goes for three days.
Teams are placed in pools initially (fours pools of 6 teams who have to play each other over two days, 15 ends a game) and need to finish first or second to go into the playoffs for the finals.
In our pool, we were undefeated and hence qualified to play in the quarter final. In the quarter final on the 3rd day, after 15 ends the score was tied at 13-13 so we had to play 3 extra ends to decide the winner and we got through to the semis. Once again after 15 ends in the semi final the scores were level and we had to play three extra ends to determine the winner and we got through to play in the final of the fours.
Our composite team, Dinesh Balgovind, Sanjit Sen (Nadi Club) Graeme Simpson (Newcastle) and Abdul Kalim (skip) from the Suva Bowling Club.
In the final we played the Fiji Commonwealth Games fours team of Kushal Pillay, Rajnesh Prasad, Curtis Mar and David Aitcheson (skip). We got off to a great start leading 6-0 but in the end went down 20-13 to the top ranked side.
There are 60 international bowlers participating in the tournament this year.
The green was running around 13 to 14 seconds the first two days and around 12 seconds on the third day due to light rain.
Next week I play in the fours in the South Pacific Bowling Carnival in Suva but in a different composite team. The Suva Bowling Club has been revamped with newer facilities and restaurant….looks a lot nicer.
Hopefully the rain stays away….otherwise the greens will be too slow for my liking.
Dinesh
Links to articles in the local news papers: